This reviewer admits having much reservation on the purchase of the license for this game. Rentals of great games in the past were not exactly entirely worth the cash shelled out, largely due to replay value and the lack of a powerful machine to really bring out the shine in them. Moreover, after having had some very poor multiplayer experiences, most of them having had to do with some very poor MMORPGS (most of them Korean, in fact), this reviewer had much worry over the purchase of this multiplayer-oriented game.
Now, this reviewer is very glad to have made this purchase. This game is worth every cent, and more.
Team Fortress 2 is initially part of the Orange Box package, which have been touted as one of the most high-value purchases that a gamer can make. However, after getting past the initial bursts of glee, this reviewer realized that the package also includes a game that this reviewer did not want - Counterstrike Source. It suffices to say that this reviewer had horrible experiences with the first Counterstrike.
Despite the allure of the other games in the orange package, this reviewer had held out, until a full one and a quarter years later when this reviewer finally built up the courage to purchase a stand-alone Team Fortress 2 license.
This reviewer also had issues with installing Steam before, if only to take advantage of downloads of free demos back then. Unfortunately, there were a variety of problems that this reviewer just could not overcome, which further added to the postponement of the purchase.
Having purchased this game, this reviewer finds that installing the application that is Steam and making it work, e.g. download and install updates was a severe pain as expected - at least until this reviewer sought support within Steam forums. Installation and updating of the game went smoothly after.
There are currently a variety of official maps to play with, as opposed to the scant few that the retail version had, though the first few maps are intricate in design. The fact that there are more now - and all of them are quite unique and most critically, fun - is a testament of the fantastic post-purchase and value-adding service that Valve has.
Match rules can be altered in any way, resulting in a richer experience for participants. (Of course, this is assuming that said alterations are still made with gameplay balance in mind.) By default, the rules are designed to prevent stalemates, which is a good decision.
The combatant classes are to be described next. While not the pioneer of the concept of combatant classes, Valve has made certain to balance them all out, greatly adding to the longevity of the game as players learn to use and practice with each and every class to improve their own versatility.
The design of every character is in line with the slightly cartoonish look of the graphics of the game, which, despite its age, is quite stylized and most importantly, very appropriate to the theme of the game, which is loud and violently silly fun.
As of now, Valve has already introduced more equipment choices in addition to the default ones, and are still considering more. There had been plenty of complaints with these equipment choices in the meantime. Amid all these vehement outcries, Valve still strives to tweak these items to achieve gameplay balance perfection - which goes to show Valve's dedication to post-purchase work.
Even after almost three years, Valve is still promising more to come, such as features to manage players' growing armory of unlocked equipment and new gameplay features. (Valve also includes loose code in the game's update files, much to the teasing of the game's fans.)
Getting a microphone enhances the fun even more, allowing one to communicate with his/her team, or in servers where mike communication is open to both teams, allowing some good-hearted taunting. Of course, this is assuming that every player is a civil-minded gentleman/lady.
To help players contend with those who are less agreeable, Valve does have a feature to allow players to mute other, more acoustically abusive players. There is also a somewhat reliable anti-cheating software for servers that connect to Steam, though at the time of this writing, it still has quite a few loopholes.
In conclusion, Team Fortress 2 may not have started out as a game worthy of purchase, but dedicated developer support and burgeoning additional content makes it one of the games with the highest value on Steamworks right now.